Police Body Cameras Cut Complaints by Over 90 Per Cent

The move to stick cameras on the police so they can walk around like viral content generators has had a massive impact on the number of complaints made about police behaviour, with some forces using the recording wearables seeing a 93 per cent fall in the number of complaints made against its officers.

The data covering four police forces was pulled together by the University of Cambridge, which says that a visible camera on a policeman also has a powerful "observer effect" on the person who's in trouble, making them behave better because they're worried about their nan seeing them on the local news if it all kicks off.

The report's lead author Dr Barak Ariel is therefore bang up for cameras going everywhere, saying: "Cooling-down potentially volatile police-public encounters to the point where official grievances against the police have virtually vanished may well lead to the conclusion that the use of BWCs indeed signals a profound sea change in modern policing."

The cameras also seem to be making the police act in a more professional and by-the-book manner, with Dr Ariel adding: "We couldn't analyse exactly what happened in every police incident involved, but we think the change has more to do with officers' behaviour. They are the ones well-trained to deal with these situations and know how to behave, so now there is a tool to make sure they are doing their job." [PA]